There’s a lot to be said about David Patten’s Middle East Quarterly article denying that Iraq is in a civil war, but let’s just quote this for now: “However, it does not follow that Iraq is in a civil war. While the government is weak, there is no political force presenting it with a serious challenge. Iraq is, indeed, an unstable nation, but there is little danger of regime change, the ultimate purpose of a civil war.”

While current conditions in Iraq don’t otherwise resemble the American Civil War, it should give Patten cause that he could have been standing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July 1863 saying “there is little danger of regime change, the ultimate purpose of a civil war” and concluded that only unpatriotic and ill-informed elements in the news media would want to say the USA was in a civil war.

Like ThinkProgress on Facebook

By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.